Cheney 'May Be Guilty of War Crime'
"two justice department memos listing permissible interrogation methods have been kept secret by the White House, even from the Senate intelligence committee. The New Yorker recently quoted a source who had seen a memo as calling it 'breathtaking'.
'The document dismissed virtually all national and international laws regulating the treatment of prisoners, including war crimes and assault statutes, and it was radical in its view that in wartime the president can fight enemies by whatever means he sees fit,' the magazine reported.
One technique allegedly used by the CIA in questioning suspects is 'waterboarding' (strapping a detainee to a board and submerging it until the prisoner believes he or she is drowning). The White House is accused of defining 'torture' so narrowly as to exclude such methods. But James Ross, a legal expert at Human Rights Watch said such a narrow definition was at odds with international norms.
'Waterboarding is clearly a form of torture. It has been used since the Inquisition. It was a well-known torture technique in Latin America,' Mr Ross said...
The US is a signatory to the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture, which bans inflicting "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental". Such practices are also a crime under US federal law."
- posted by geoff @ #